The adventures of Jonathan Harker

[schneefink]

I got the first three entries from Dracula Daily and I already enjoy it a lot. I read the novel once about twenty years ago and I remember very little, and for a long time I'd played with the idea of rereading it, but this format is a great idea.

Possibly my favorite part is the surprising amount of reaction posts on Tumblr. It's a large communal read-along, which is fun. I very much look forward to even more memes in the future.

I do think it's unfair how much people make fun of Jonathan Harker for being oblivious: it's completely natural that he comes to the conclusion "these people have weird superstitions" rather than "the supernatural is real." And it's his first job as a solicitor, of course he wants to do a good job instead of returning home saying "I turned back because these people seemed a little odd for some reason." The first parts also already did a great job selling me on his relationship with Mina solely from how and how often he thinks of her. I will resist the urge to look up spoilers and (not-so-)patiently wait for future updates.

Comments

[genarti]

Yeah! I've half enjoyed the massive bookclub reaction, and half been defensive and irritated on Jonathan Harker's behalf about people's takes. He's a junior employee on a weird business trip with no one along as a trusted reality check, and as you say, "these people have weird superstitions, and they've succeeded in making me feel more unsettled about this work trip I'm locked into now" is a much more reasonable conclusion for him to come to than "the supernatural is real, and all their superstitions are pure fact, and I need to flee right now regardless of the professional consequences."

But I am thoroughly enjoying the date-by-date email format! I first read the book a couple of years back, so my memory is still pretty fresh, but it's fun and interestingly different to not be able to whiz through a week at a go, but have to take it at the journal entry pace.

[schneefink]

I'm already very curious what it'll take for him to accept the supernatural! I haven't even checked when the next update will be but I await it eagerly.

[primeideal]

I'm doing this too! I haven't read it before and I suspect at some point I might want to read it more quickly. I did not know it was in the documentary format.

The cynic in me says "people are making fun of Jonathan because he thinks he's more knowledgeable than the peasants and that's Wrong and Problematic." I like the fact that he's a linguistics nerd, though!

[schneefink]

I thoroughly enjoy all his observations and his notes for later and so on :) I wonder if he does circle back to those things once he's back home.

[vintagewitch]

That is such a good idea for a community read along! I might sign up just because I love that.

Was Dracula originally a periodical? I know a lot of literature from that time period was published as periodicals, which would make this format especially cool.

[calliopes_pen]

No, it was originally in novel format and was never done in periodical form, so this whole thing of doing it separately a bit at a time is a unique way of doing things.

(From what I've been hearing, if you're going by dates like that, that means you'll get Jonathan's stuff, then a particular section with other characters, then back to Jonathan, sort of back and forth. When in the book itself, everything in the castle is uninterrupted.)

[schneefink]

Apparently the same thing was done last year and it just caught on big by chance this year? Delightful.

It was originally published as a novel. And apparently (I got all this from Tumblr and didn't fact-check) the novel skips backwards and forwards in time in some places, so we're getting it slightly out of order from the original, which is also very interesting.

[writerkit]

Okay, I've done it, I have signed up for Dracula Daily.

[schneefink]

\o/ I hope you enjoy it!

[nonesensed]

Tumblr is what made me aware of Dracula Daily being a thing! Thus far it's been both neat to see people getting to experience Dracula for the first time and amusing/horrifying to see all the lawyers on Tumblr and Twitter just go "Yeah, everything Harker does here makes sense and reminds me of my first job/internship" XD

[schneefink]

Yeah, all the "being a baby lawyer is just Like That" has been somewhat concerning ^^